About me :)
Hi! I’m Destini T. Riley, an award-winning filmmaker and motion designer from North Carolina. In 2016, Filmmaker Magazine recognized me as the youngest filmmaker among its “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” My first film, I, Destini, was showcased internationally at festivals such as Full Frame, Aspen Film, and Short of the Week, and was featured by The New York Times Op-Docs. The film was also a finalist for a CINE Award and is now archived in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
After earning my Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, I began creating dynamic visual work for professional sports teams and live entertainment. My designs and motion pieces have appeared in major arenas, across social media, and in large-scale campaigns celebrating athletes, fans, and community. Now based in Los Angeles, I continue to explore storytelling through movement, color, and emotion, blending my roots in filmmaking with my evolving creative voice as a designer.
My work explores the relationship between character, color, and experience across both physical and digital mediums. Through painting, animation, and motion design, I investigate how expression and movement can reveal the emotional and cultural layers of everyday life. Rooted in my experience as a Black woman from Durham, North Carolina, my practice reflects on the intersections of race, class, community, and identity while reimagining how these themes exist within contemporary visual culture.
Whether creating large-scale paintings that reinterpret the inner reflections of self or motion graphics that energize live sports environments, I aim to build visual worlds that balance introspection and rhythm. Each project becomes an opportunity to merge storytelling with design and to transform personal observation into motion, texture, and form.
Brands I've worked with: JORDAN – NIKE – MICROSOFT – NEW YORK TIMES – BLACK GIRLS ROCK – eBay – ABC –MASTERCARD – WARNER MEDIA – Super Bowl LVI – HULU – DAKTRONICS – COINBASE – NBA – LA SPARKS
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